When completing a cement surface arguably the most important part is the finishing of the surface. A cement walkway with a poor finish, although functional, is often regarded as poor work by the homeowner or landowner requesting the job. One way used by almost all masonry workers is the use of cement finishing tools such as fine bristle brooms that are used to smooth out the surface to provide a clean surface that is pleasing to the customer's eye. In order to get a clean, uniform surface, the finishing tools used must have a clean, uniform bristle surface so as not to reflect the imperfections in the bristle head in the surface face it is being used create. The cost of a good quality cement-finishing tool could be $100 dollars or more and is designed for multiple jobs as long as the bristles are properly cleaned and protected from damage.
In addition, when on a job time and money is wasted when the finishing tool is removed from the truck and it has bent/deformed bristles form being thrown in the back of the truck. The head of the finishing tool that has bristles can be removed for storage. If the finishing tool's head were stored on an uneven surface, the sheer weight of the head itself would cause the bristles to become disfigured and most likely stay that way. This makes the tool unusable for its intended purpose. That is if the tool is used in this condition the uneven bristles will create marks/lines/uneven tracks in the cement that is considered to be a poor finish.
Often, it is first realized that the finishing tool used to finish the surface of the cement is defective at the end of the job when it is time to use the tool to finish the surface. At this time, if the cement is already poured, there is no time to get another finishing tool and the defective one must be utilized. This leads to a poor finish and extra work to try to make the surface look as good as possible. Not to mention adding an addition cost to the job to replace the finishing tool for the next job.
Accordingly, it is very important that the cement-finishing tool utilized for smoothing concrete surfaces is stored carefully so as to not damage the bristles. However, since these tools are often stored in a work trucks, even storing the bristled heads with care cannot prevent shifting of tools when in transit which usually cause damage to the bristles and therefore rendering the finishing tool unusable. Even if the bristles are covered for protection, the finishing tools own weight will damage the bristles in transit.
Therefore, what is needed is a cover specifically designed to not only protect the bristles of the cement finishing tools from being damaged from other objects stored along side the tools, but to protect the bristles from becoming damaged when stored. The cover must also be made to fit finishing heads made from different manufactures and be configured to allow air to circulate about the bristles, since the bristles are often stored wet after cleaning. The present invention is configured to address the problems in the field today.